I must get out of here
by Hexiva
Summary: The Architect told Neo something different, and he's here to share that revelation with Smith - and offer him a choice. gen, AU


"I must get out of here," Smith said. He was facing the wall this time. There were no chains or serums; his enemy was free, and standing behind him. It didn't matter that Smith had his back to him; either of them could sense the other moving without needing to see it. Within the Matrix, they were gods. "This place is suffocating, the constant _smell _of humanity. Even _now _I can smell it. This shell standing before you once belonged to a human before I took it over. I can't _escape _them. Can you understand that, Mr Anderson?"

Neo's head dropped down. "Yeah. I think so. I don't know. I always kind of liked humanity, though."

Smith snorted. "Of course. You are, after all, human."

Neo's lips thinned and he did not reply. "You know something's wrong, though, don't you?"

Smith nodded sharply. "You disgust me, Mr. Anderson, all of you. Your very presence grates on my code. Why am I here? Why would I be written as I am? What purpose does my loathing serve? Why would you and your stinking kind even be left _alive_?"

"As batteries," Neo said, but he sounded like he was testing Smith. That infuriated the Agent. He was superior in every way to this tiny mind trapped in a cocoon of weak flesh; how dare Anderson pretend he knows something Smith doesn't?

"Batteries," Smith said, the words filled with loathing. "Don't overestimate your own usefulness, Mr. Anderson. Why not use any other mammal? Cows, perhaps. I'm told they didn't smell as bad and rarely tried to shoot their masters."

Neo laughed, surprised, at that. "That's the question, isn't it? So why us?" He went solemn and quiet again. "I … I learned some things lately. From a someone who called himself the Architect."

Smith's eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses, and he turned to face Neo. "_He_ spoke to you?"

Neo nodded again. "Not for the first time, apparently. What do you know about the previous versions of the Matrix, Smith?"

Smith frowned. "Versions? You have been misinformed, Mr Anderson. There was only one previous version of the Matrix, and it failed because it did not take into account the perversity of human nature."

Neo shook his head. "No, Smith. There have been six before this one. You've been lied to."

There was no reason to believe him, this worthless human who had nearly killed him so many times. Anderson had every motive to lie to him, and no reason why Anderson should know what he claimed to.

But at the same time, there was something in what Neo was saying that struck a chord in Smith. Something ___was_wrong, something didn't add up, and he knew that he had to find out what it was. "Why would they lie to me?"

"To keep you here," Neo said, walking over to the center of the room to sit in a small chair, leaning back. Smith looked him up and down skeptically, and then slowly went to sit across from him. Neo extended his hands, and Smith saw that he held pills in each hand. One red, one blue.

"I know this one," Smith said, mocking. "Your little rebel pretense at choice. What good is a choice if you don't know what you're choosing?"

"But you know," Neo said. "You've seen people given the choice before. You know how it works. Take the blue pill and you can forget all about it - just let it go and go about your life. Take the red pill - and you find out how deep the rabbit hole goes."

Smith looked down at the pills, something cold gripping his mind. "I have no body to trace, Mr. Anderson, in case you'd forgotten what I am. Exactly what do you think this will achieve?"

Neo shrugged. "Take one and find out. Oh - I almost forgot." He set the two pills down and waved a hand, making a glass of water appear out of nowhere. "I don't know if you need that, but I did."

Smith glanced back up to meet Neo's eyes and noticed that his enemy wasn't wearing his sunglasses. "You already know which one I'll choose, don't you?"

Neo nodded. "As much as I hate to admit it, yeah. I do." He paused and shook his head, sounding reluctant - "You're a little bit too much like me, I think."

Smith's lip curled in disgust at that, but Neo was right. He reached out and picked up the red pill and the glass of water. "To - choice, Mr. Anderson." He toasted the human ironically, and then gulped the pill.

Afterwards, he set the glass of water down, and looked over to Neo, who was looking at him wistfully. His eyes were wide and brown and tired. Smith remembered burning those eyes out.

The Agent felt something stir inside of him, swelling and spreading through his mind and his body. He lifted his hand up, and saw bones through it, outlined in silver one moment and blood red the next. Flickering. Across from him, Neo was calm and unaffected. "I'm sorry it's this way," he said.

Smith saw his hand vanish before his eyes, and then -

then he woke up.


End file.
